Story · Environment map · about 4 min
How much of England is wild habitat?
Natural England keeps an inventory of the habitats it treats as priorities, from woods and moors to meadows and marshes, and a map of the rivers it scores as most natural. This story adds the inventory up, group by group, and then looks at the rivers.
About a sixth of England
Natural England’s Priority Habitats Inventory maps the patches of habitat it treats as priorities for conservation. Counted once each, they cover 2.1 million hectares of England’s land, 16% of its 13.0 million. The map draws the patches from county scale; this view is the New Forest.
Woodland is the biggest share
Deciduous woodland is the largest group: 719,000 hectares, 5.5% of England’s land. The Forest of Dean is on screen.
Heath and moor
Heathland and moorland come next, 428,000 hectares or 3.3% of England. The North York Moors are on screen.
Bog and fen
Bog and fen cover 288,000 hectares, 2.2% of England. In the inventory’s own recorded areas blanket bog is 237,000 hectares and lowland fen only 20,000. The North Pennines are on screen.
Meadow and marsh
Grassland and meadow cover 216,000 hectares and coastal and floodplain grazing marsh 216,000, each 1.7% of England. The Somerset Levels are on screen.
The most natural rivers
Natural England also maps the rivers and streams it scores as the most natural: 29,858 stretches adding up to 7,237 km, of which 3,967 km scored as highly natural and 3,207 km were added by local experts. About 10% of the length lies in waterbodies designated heavily modified.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- The inventory maps patches of habitat, not the quality of each one. What would you need to know to say whether a patch is in good condition?
- Why might a river be on the most-natural map even though its waterbody is designated heavily modified?
Try it on the map: Zoom in on your own area. Which habitat groups are nearby, and which are missing?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.